The Go-show
“Without any doubt, Anthony Gobert was the biggest natural talent I ever saw ride during my career,” so said Colin Edwards, two-time World Superbike champ and former Motogp star.
Anthony Gobert was an enigma. He’d been an off-roader who came late to race on thetarmac. By the time he’d come to road racing in the early 1990s, Gobert had already learned a great deal and had a wild, rear-wheel sliding style.
He was teamed up withtroy Corser at Winfield Honda whentroy won the Aussie Superbike title on the aging RC30 and then Goey took the next year’s title on the brand-new Rc45.that was important for both Gobert and Honda.the RC45 didn’t win much in its early days (save for a few TT races) so a national title gave them something to crow about.
But Gobert turned his back on Honda and they lost him to Kawasaki and it was on the green machines in WSB that Anthony showed his mettle, following his switch to the green bikes at the final round of the 1994 season at Phillip Island. Gobert stuck his oar into the championship challenge, taking place that year between team-mate Scott Russell and Ducati’s Carl Fogarty. He was there to try and spoil the Brit’s party. Goey took pole position, a third in race one and a win in race two.
Over the winter of 1994 Gobert had to learn how to ride with a race-style (one up, five down) gearbox on the Muzzy ZXR. 1995 saw three wins as he took fourth place in the title race: these wins came in the USA at Laguna Seca and two at Australia.
For 1996 at the first round at Misano, his second race win was ruled out due to a technical infringement on the bike’s carbs. It was a frustrating year for Gobert and – while the fans loved his style and attitude off the bike – it was clear that he partied hard and often upset his rivals big time with his late-night paddock antics.that year his relationship with Muzzy would be tainted by a few no-shows allegedly due to injury – some said it was faked and that he was often out on his jet-ski. With the ‘Go-show’ now called the ‘No-show’ he still turned up for the final round at his beloved Phillip Island to take both wins before heading off to 500cc Grand Prixs with Lucky Strike Suzuki.
Despite talking big, the best he managed in Grand Prixs alongside Scott Russell in 1997 was a seventh in Austria. Following on from a DNF at Donington Park a drug test allegedly showed cannabis in his bloodstream and he was ‘let go’ by Suzuki, all at the age of 21.
1998 saw him move to the Vance & Hines Ducati squad in the USA where he’d either win in style in AMA or get caught following another drugs test. 1999 was more of the same along with more WSB wins (including one at V&H home race at Laguna) but another ‘no-show’ at the end of the season saw him leave the team.
His career had a brief resurgence in 2000 where he took a Bimota SB8K to his last World Superbike win in Australia. He would later indulge in some odd 500cc GP appearances and in later years even some British Superbike appearances. Sadly, the wild side of Anthony Gobert seemed to take over as in 2008 he was convicted of robbing a 70-year-old man and snatching a woman’s purse in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia where he lived. Shame as many – including Colin Edwards – considered him to be one of the most naturally gifted racers of any generation.